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Page 36
"We shall keep him as long as we can possibly persuade him to stay.
Meanwhile, my plan is to have you settle down and stay with us, as a
member of the family. We'll have someone else attend to the office. You
can go with me, as usual, when I operate, but I shall put you on no case
but Dr. Leaver's, and the greater part of your time will be his."
"But what will he think? Doesn't he know that I'm your office nurse?"
"How should he know it--unless you have taken pains to tell him?"
She shook her head. "He only knows that I am your assistant at
operations. The other point hasn't come up."
"Good. Then he will accept whatever situation he finds, and never think
of questioning it. The way is clear enough. And it's the only way I know
of to insure his having what he needs--the close companionship of a
sympathetic--yet not too sympathetic--woman--with a face like yours,"
he added, slyly.
The quick colour answered this, as he knew it would. "Dr. Burns! You know
I'm not even good looking! Please don't say such things."
"I only said 'a face like yours.' That may imply a face as plain as you
think Amy Mathewson's is--and as my wife and I know it is not. It's time
you waked up, girl, to your own attractions. You ought to have faith in
them when I'm asking the use of them for this patient of mine. I'd give
about all I own to put him on his feet again."
"I hope you can--indeed I do. And of course--anything I can do--"
He nodded. "I'll leave that to you. Consult--not your head alone,
but--your heart!"
And he let her go, smiling at her evident confusion of mind. But when
left alone he sighed again.
"He needs a woman like my Ellen,--_that_ would be a drug of a higher
potency. But--he can't have that--he can't have that! I must do the
next best thing."
And he went on his way, studying it out.
That evening he took his wife into his confidence. He did not tell her
the whole story,--it was not his to tell. But he made her acquainted with
the fact that Leaver had had a severe nervous shock and that the thing to
be overcome was his own distrust of himself, the thing to be recovered
was his entire self-command.
"I have insisted on his staying as long as he can be content," Burns
explained. "I had your consent to that, I know?"
"Of course, Red. You knew that."
"In my enthusiasm I went a step further, without realizing that I had not
consulted you. I asked Amy Mathewson to stay with us too, as a member of
the family. I asked her cooperation as a woman, as well as a nurse, and
to have that it seemed to me necessary to have her here, even after he is
up and able to look after his own wants. How will you feel about that?"
He looked straight into her eyes. They were sitting upon a small side
porch, in the late June evening. He had come in from a visit to a nearby
patient, and, finding her upon the porch, had thrown himself upon the
cushion at her feet, his head against her knee. Now, he turned and looked
up at her, and she could see his expression clearly in the moonlight.
"I don't believe I quite understand yet," she said. "What is it that you
want Amy to do for him, 'as a woman'? Read to him, and walk with him, and
be a sort of comrade?"
"Precisely that--and a bit more."
"Can you prescribe that sort of thing, and make sure that it will work
out? He may not care for it."
"I want him to have a woman's companionship; it's what he needs, I firmly
believe. It must be a certain sort of woman--the kind who will be good
for his nerves, gently stimulating, not exacting. One of the brilliant
society women he knows wouldn't do at all. The ideal kind would be--your
own kind. But he can't have that." He spoke so decidedly that she smiled,
though he did not see it. "It seems to me that Amy, if she puts her heart
into it, can give him just what he needs. Remember he's a sick man, and
will continue to be a sick man for some time after he's walking about our
streets and climbing our hills."
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